Republican Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio reacted with astonishment to revelations made during a Wednesday hearing on the activities of the FBI. During an interview with Fox Business host Larry Kudlow, he described the news as “pretty frightening stuff.”
The hearing, titled “Oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” primarily focused on FBI Director Christopher Wray receiving a volley of tough questions from Republicans on the committee. These included queries over the targeting of parents protesting at school board meetings, reports of FBI sources in the Capitol building riot of January 6, 2021, and the August 8 raid of Mar-a-Lago.
Jordan, the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, highlighted the biggest takeaway of the hearing as being the FBI’s acquisition of private data from American citizens who are not suspected of breaking the law. Systematically, FBI agents are working with US banks and private businesses to acquire the data.
“When I heard Director Wray saying ‘I need to provide you with a briefing on how this works’ I was astonished,” Jordan told Kudlow. He went on to discuss a quote-unquote “email from the FBI to Bank of America” where the organization asked for credit and debit card activity “in a certain geographic location [D.C.] for a specified time period in relation to the purchase of firearms or firearm related material.”
Jordan then went on to explain that the hearing “underscores” the need for the controversial Section 702 of FISA, to be eschewed in its current form, owing to its use of “illegal querying of a database and the acquisition of information from U.S citizens without a warrant 204,000 times in the past according to The New York Times.”
Therefore, Jordan considers the revelations to be “frightening” and this is the basis of his case against renewing Section 702 of FISA. Good governance and oversight on behalf of the public and the FBI is needed in such matters.
The revelations discussed by Chairman Jordan are certainly cause for concern. It is important to remember that authorization and oversight are necessary when it comes to the activities of law enforcement and intelligence agencies. This exchange should serve as a warning that proper oversight is absolutely necessary.